Normal Fault Hanging Wall

A downthrown block between two normal faults dipping towards each other is a graben.

Normal fault hanging wall.

The hanging wall is to the left of the fault and the footwall to the right. Normal fault s are common. Normal fault an inclined fault in which the hanging wall appears to have slipped downward relative to the footwall common fault gravity fault inclined fault a geological fault in which one side is above the other based on wordnet 3 0 farlex clipart collection. Low angle normal faults with regional tectonic significance may be designated detachment faults.

Normal dip slip faults are produced by vertical compression as earth s crust lengthens. An upthrown block between two normal faults dipping away from each other is a horst. Our models differ from those of cloos 1968 in that the rigid footwall block and horizontal base define the initial shape of the master normal fault. The hanging wall slides down relative to the footwall.

If you imagine undoing the motion of a normal fault you will undo the stretching and thus shorten the horizontal distance between two points on either side of the fault. Extensional forces those that pull the plates apart and gravity are the forces that create normal faults. Groups of normal faults can produce horst and graben topography or a series of relatively high and low standing fault blocks as seen in areas where the crust is rifting or being pulled apart by plate tectonic activity. The sloping surface of the footwall block is either planar or has a single concave upward or convex upward bend.

In a normal fault the hanging wall moves downward relative to the footwall. Normal fault and a layer of wet homogeneous clay represents the hanging wall strata. Normal faults occur in areas undergoing extension stretching. They are most common at divergent boundaries.

A normal fault will have a hanging wall and a footwall. Hanging wall is where the ore is eroding out of the rocks. 2003 2012 princeton university farlex inc. The term footwall is derived from miners finding mineral deposits where inactive faults have been filled in with mineral deposits at their feet.

Normal fault a type of fault in which the hanging wall moves down relative to the footwall and the fault surface dips steeply commonly from 50 o to 90 o. The rift basin at the bottom of the north. They bound many of the mountain ranges of the world and many of the rift valleys found along spreading margins. This sliding downward of normal faults creates rifts valleys and mountains.